(a.k.a. Yakov Borisovich Levandovsky) I came back from vacation this week and found myself urgently in need of a warm winter shapka. I lost my last one after I gave it to some guy in exchange for a bottle of…
Jan 14, 2008 | Comments (1)
ST. PETERSBURG — The morning air was icy and the mood tense as people gathered for Other Russia’s pre-protest press conference outside the Yabloko office and it was obvious that something was going to go down, and soon…
Dec 11, 2007 | Leave Comment
This article was first published on November 21, 2007 in The eXile. It was just after 1 a.m. on Monday morning when I pulled my rental car up to my apartment building. I’d just spent the last 48 hours working as…
Nov 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Taxi Driver: Gypsy Cab Confessions in Moscow
To: President Vladimir Putin From: The Moscow Foreign Press Corps We, the Moscow Foreign Press Corps, wish to directly address you, the esteemed Russian President, concerning an affront you committed against our profession, and against our careers. Last week, you…
Oct 22, 2007 | Leave Comment
Just when we thought we could forget about Guardian Moscow correspondent Luke Harding’s hackburgling habit, along comes the following juxtaposition from a reader in London. Is Harding unaware that his stuff sounds like everyone else’s, or does he just not care?…
Sep 14, 2007 | Leave Comment
They get in your mind… They make you do things! – General Owen referring to the Brain Bug in Starship Troopers. This isn’t a movie, kids. The Brain Bug is real. It doesn’t look anything like those big fat brain worms…
Aug 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Toxoplasma: The Obscure Cat-Shit Parasite That Explains Europe
I started hearing about OMON before I ever saw them. I’d only been in Moscow a few weeks when a bar debate erupted over the authenticity of a YouTube clip purporting to capture an OMON deathblow. During an arrest an…
May 18, 2007 | Comments (1)
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